Official: Lack of funding harms Indian health

PORTLAND, Ore. — Native Americans aren't getting the health care they need because services for them are vastly underfunded, the director of the federal Indian Health Service said Friday.

Yvette Roubideaux told a gathering of American Indian doctors in Portland that her agency is still underfunded despite significant gains made in recent years.

"It's really clear that the health disparities, the lack of health care providers, the lack of updated facilities, the delays in providing care — all of those seem to fundamentally result from the lack of resources that we have," Roubideaux said in an a...